User Reviews

Appearance: Pours an espresso brown color with a half inch film that recedes to a ringlet while leaving a nice pattern of lace

Smell: Chocolate fudge, with hints of caramel and vanilla

Taste: Chocalate fudge, up front, with just a smidge of dark fruit; by mid-palate, a roasty bitterness arrives, along with the caramel and vanilla flavors hidden underneath; the aftertaste brings the sweet chocolate elements to a crest

Mouthfeel: Full-bodied with moderate carbonation

Overall: A really nice chocolate stout in the Southern Tier vein; great for dessert

Thanks, hannont, for the opportunity; this extra was a terrific surprise

A: The pour is pretty much black in color with a small brown head that subsides to a thin ring around the glass.

S: Both milk and dark chocolate aroma fills the nose instantly. A really nice creaminess to it and a mild roastiness. Some sweet vanilla and caramel underneath to round out what is a very rich nose.

T: Sweet chocolate with an excellent creaminess, almost like a glass of chocolate milk. A mild bitterness from the roasted malt and some dark chocolate flavor. Toffee and caramel provide additional sweetness.

M: Medium to full in body with a very smooth and creamy feel on the tongue.

O: Despite a rather hefty ABV, this is a dangerously smooth beer that was very easy to drink.

Poured a black color with good carbonation and a nice tannish head. lookd appetizing. Nose is sweet, roasty, cocoa, both biiter and milk. Taste is nice chocolate, bitter and milky, roasty to apoint. taste very similar to Choklat in a few ways. Mouthfeel is a nice chocolate flavor, not to bitter, just balance, bakers powder cocoa, milk chocolate and bitter dark collide.

I screwed up big on this... Opened this to share with Brenda... I thought this was a Rogue rebranded Chocolate Stout until I noticed the word "Imperial" on the bottle. Fuck Fuck Fuck... Sorry Matt!! I would have saved this until the RIS tasting had I noticed sooner.

Anyway, thanks to reinheitsgematt for the bottle.. he brought this to a recent tasting at my house a while back and it was a bottle that we never got to.

My share is poured into my Delerium goblet... foamy dark tan head has good retention and lacing.

Nose reminds me immediately of Dark Chocolate mousse. Darker chocolate than what I was expecting.. not much going on in the roasted malt department.

More roasty out of the gate than the aroma, but this is still allll about the cocoa... some mild sweetness helps push the chocolate forward, and I would swear some vanilla is present... Rich and mildly decadent.. the body is not as heavy as the ABV made me think.. the carbonation is on the light side lending to a creamy mouthfeel.

As it warms.. the chocolate develops a sorta fake element that I am having a hard time describing except it reminds of chocolate extract instead of real cocoa.

Bottle purchased at the Rogue pub in PDX. Pours utterly opaque black with a small tan head that sticks around for a couple of minutes. Massive chocolate aroma; milk chocolate even. Uh... chocolate? Not really sure what else to say about this one. It really does smell like a glass of chocolate milk. The taste is thankfully a bit more complex, opening with big roasty malts, bittersweet chocolate and toasted grain, but chocolate ultimately prevails. The finish is chocolatey but pleasantly dry and bitter, in the typical Rogue fashion. This is pretty nice stuff, though I wouldn't take it over their regular Chocolate Stout on most occasions.

was given a couple bottles of this by co owner of rogue during a meeting with the guys at the brewery and rogue creamery. So pours deeply brown, near black. slick on the mouthfeel with slight carbonation. very thin head that disappears to nothing. wonderful chocolate aromas. incredibly smooth 10 percent. downright dangerous. like an amped up young's dc.

from what i understand this beer was brewed for a special japanese client and is limited to a two hundred case production so odds are you won't find this just hanging out at the beer store. i'll be interested to see if this get re-brewed and bottled in the 14.99 pewter re-sealables sometime in the future.

12 ounce bottle purchased at the brewpub in Portland for a few dollars a few months back, thanks to Shane for giving me a heads up about this one, poured into my Russian River pint glass last night, nearly black in color with dark brown around the edges, big 1 1/2 inch tan soapy head that lasted a long time, great retention and lacing, aroma consists of both milk and dark chocolate, roasted malts, sweet toffee, hint of vanilla, and sugar, flavor starts off with creamy milk chocolate that is almos along the lines of a milkshake, roasted malts along with sugary toffee in the middle, finish is slightly dry to balance some of those sweet flavors with more of a dark chocolate flavor, some even sweeter malts come to the surface as it warms, sweet, slightly dry, and roasty mouthfeel, medium bodied, a little more carbonation than it probably needed, taste lingers for a good amount of time with sweetness, drank half of this bottle pretty easily until my last sip or two, alcohol is hidden well by the chocolate, interesting beer that I am glad I tried, not my favorite stout ever but it was enjoyable and unique, would drink again, worth trying

i picked up a case of this beer at the rogue brewery, willing to trade if ya have something i might be interested in, on my list or not.

A - black as can be, when poured slightly aggressive got about one finger thickness of darker caramel colored head.

S - smells like a tootsie roll! could have used more hops.

T - chocolate stands out above all else in this beer as you would expect but you do have your coffee and toffee undertones. this beer is sweet, covers up the massive 10%abv. my only complaint is that there could have been more hop presents aroma or taste

M - super creamy feel but doesnt stick like syrup to your mouth

D - for an imperial stout it sure is easy to drink, might be the sweetness might be the lack of hops.

A: Black with very slight ruby highlights, tan head. Looks as RIS should
S: Tons of chocolate toasty aromas. Smells fantastic.
T: Lots of bitter chocolate and sweetness. Very tasty.
M: Decent mouthfeel, thick but not syrupy. It lingers for a while and makes a good desert on its own. Could use a glass of water to wash down the bitter chocolate aftertaste though.

All said, it's a very good beer. It drinks well and balances the added chocolate well with the underlying beer and doesn't come off as a gimmick like many other chocolate or otherwise flavored stouts. I'm not sure I would rush out to find another bottle, but it's worth a shot if you have the chance.

Purchased at the brewpub/distillery in The Pearl District of Portland. I got a hot tip that this was available so I mustered the troops and we marched northward. What a strange looking bottle.

Pours ebony with a one finger light brown head. Retention is good but only a little lacing is left on the glass.

This just smells like a melted bar of milk chocolate. I'm going to grab a snifter and pour this bastard into it. Alright, some of the liquid is in a snifter. Jesus this smells delicious. It's straight milk chocolate and cocoa with a slight roasted edge. There's a minimal amount of noticeable earthiness. The slight roast keeps the aroma from being sweet.

Well, it tastes like milk chocolate and cocoa. There's a medium level of sugary sweetness to the beer. The alcohol is hidden quite well by the rich chocolate malt. A low level of bitterness is present, but no hop flavor. The finish is rich chocolate and sweet, with a little bitterness and a hint of alcohol that provides a warming effect. The bitterness becomes more apparent as the beer warms past room temperature.

The beer is robust and full bodied with a medium-high level of carbonation and a smooth, creamy, chewy mouthfeel. A damn fine beer, but the thought of the amount of calories in this beer is frightening, so I doubt I'll be finishing this bottle.

I'm not sure what the story is behind this beer. I purchased this bottle at the Issaquah Brewhouse, but I believe Rogue brews select recipes such as this primarily for export to Japan, marketing them under the Ezo Beer label. A perusal of ezo-beer dot com yields a list of nine Rogue beers, but this Imperial Chocolate Stout is not among them and the site provides little by way of company info.

The bottle cap and half the silk-screened bottle are (presumably) written in Japanese, and there's no government warning label advising against drinking while pregnant, which I believe is a legal mandate for all alcoholic beverages sold in the US. It does say 10% and has a quaintly worded description that somehow sounds like an English translation of a foreign text: "we cannot help but be drawn into the magic of these flavors." Charming.

I poured the beer into a snifter. The body is a glossy, ebony black with one of the darkest heads I've ever seen - deep sandy brown. The real chocolate aroma is superb. Real chocolate is also the central driving force in the flavor, especially as the sweeter elements swing from mid-palate into the finish. The natural bittering properties of roasted cacao would seem to provide more bittering than hops, which otherwise contribute no notable presence.

The mouthfeel is plump, placid, and chewy. But despite lively carbonation, the head soon evacuates and little lace forms on the glass. I noted a touch of alcohol on my breath as I exhaled and a soothing warmth as the beer unfurls in the belly. Alcohol flavor is otherwise suppressed.

This Ezo Beer a terrific sipping ale for dessert or otherwise and is one of the most chocolaty beers I've ever had. It is notably creamy, especially for a strong ale. I cannot help but be drawn into the magic of these flavors.

Turns out this is a nice beer. Gives Southern Tier Choklat a decent run for the money. As stated by the previous reviewer, unless you can read Japanese, the only useful info on the label is the appearance of "10%" I don't know if that indicates ABV or ABW, but my taste buds and liver conferred and decided that it was definitely ABV. The verbiage on the label that is rendered in English is a bunch of flowery, useless prose. Nuff of that.

12-oz bottle purchased at the Rogue location in Issaquah, WA.

Pours on the dark-red side of black, with minimal head and lacing. Aroma is chocolate - loud and clear - with a sweet, creamy character. Malty and appealing. Initial palate is sweet and medium-full bodied. The chocolate and malty flavors come through well. Then the carbonation and drying, astringent finish take over. Despite the noted appearance of little carbonation, this is actually too carbonated for my tastes. The hops (I have no idea what variety) sneak in at the very end.

I think this one needs some time in the cellar, but it's certainly tasty now. At $3.50 a bottle, I wish I'd bought more.

Issaquah Brewery has some bottles of this beer that's brewed for Ezo Beer. No one gave me a really good answer on availability or how old it is. They seem to be selling it at closeout type pricing. A good deal of the label is in Japanese but there is a prominent 10% on it.

Aroma is very sweet like melted chocolate but there is some roast malt to be found under that. Some fruity ale yeast aroma too with black cherries and plums.

Deep dark black and pretty much no light gets through it when held up. Smallish thick head on pouring that fades to a little ring of foam around the edge. Hard to tell since it's so dark but it doesn't seem like anything is feeding the head once it's poured.

Damn, that's lots of chocolate. In fact, the more of it I drink I just get chocolate and bittering hops. On the first few sips I picked up some roast and some big fruity ale yeast but its pretty sweet and chocolaty throughout.

Big body and very creamy carbonation. Nice and thick.

This is a tough one to drink. I'm thinking about a bunch of food pairings that this would really work with, but to just sip it, it's too sweet. Spicy mole chicken or Rasperry sorbet it would probably work but I don't really dig it by itself.